One-Thing Shops: Soda, Los Angeles

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John Nese, the owner of Galco’s Old World Grocery, stands in the aisles among some of the 750 soda variety he carries. Once a neighborhood Italian grocery, Galco’s has evolved into a soda specialty shop that draws visitors from around the world.CreditCreditLaure Joliet

By Alex Ronan

May 31, 2016

“I loved going to work with my father when I was a little tiny kid because we didn’t have sodas in our refrigerator and I knew if I went to the shop, I’d get to have a soda with lunch,” says John Nese, the second generation Nese to own Galco’s Old World Grocery in Highland Park, Los Angeles. A neighborhood Italian grocery founded in 1897, the store now stocks soda exclusively — carrying over 750 varieties from independent brands, and drawing visitors from around the world.

Nese’s father’s first job was selling newspapers in front of the store as a kid; around twenty-five years later he returned to the same spot, but as partner. Business was good for a while and the family gained full ownership of the store, but by the early ‘90s, sales were hurting. “Chain stores took over the distribution channels and suddenly the prices for small groceries skyrocketed,” Nese says. “It was cheaper for us to go buy one can of tomatoes from a supermarket than buy in bulk.” Nese watched nervously as other independents went out of business one by one.

A turning point came when a Pepsi retailer visited the store. The salesman waltzed in promising the best price on a pallet of Pepsi, but Nese would only make $30 from the hundreds of sodas and he’d have to charge customers more than they’d pay at a chain store. When he said he wasn’t interested, the salesman just laughed and insisted that customers would demand Pepsi.

It seemed like the beginning of the end, and Nese was devastated. “Then, suddenly, I realized I oughta thank Pepsi Cola for reminding me that I own my shelf space, they don’t,” he says. “So I went out looking and found 25 little brands of soda by independent bottlers.” The small bottlers were struggling too; many of the people Nese found were down to producing one or two soda flavors from a dozen in their heyday. “They were pretty down in the dumps,” he says, “I remember, I asked one guy to make Bubble Up and he said, ‘Why do you want it? Nobody’s gonna buy it.’ I just told him ‘If I don’t have it on my shelf, you’re right, nobody is ever going to buy it.’” It sold well and continues to sell at Galco’s.

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"With a glass bottle, the way the soda goes in is the way it comes out," Nese says. "Plastic, no. Cans, I'm sorry, but no. Wait until you can have a proper soda out of a glass bottle and it'll taste a whole lot better."CreditLaure Joliet

Business slowly picked up as customers came in to track down the sodas of their childhood or simply taste something different. Nese’s father remained skeptical. “I have an early newspaper article here where they quote my father saying, ‘You need more tomatoes and pasta in here,’” Nese says with a belly laugh. (The clipping is framed on the wall; his father died in 1995.)

Soda flavors include strawberry, birch, honey cream, peach, pineapple, rhubarb, lavender, lemongrass, butterscotch and huckleberry. Galco’s imports a grape soda from the Republic of Georgia and Fentimans from England; they carry the family-run Barritt’s Ginger Beer, a Bermuda-based line that has been in production since 1874. There’s passion fruit ginger ale and coffee soda, plus dozens of root beers. Detroit’s Faygo is made with 100-percent natural cane sugar; each batch of Natrona’s Red Ribbon line is individually mixed by hand before undergoing pinpoint carbonation, which produces especially small bubbles.

“Coca-Cola and Pepsi and all the big labels have sacrificed taste for profit,” Nese says. “They switched from oils to extracts because it’s cheaper. They’ve pumped up the carbonation because that means using less syrup, which in turn increases profit margins. The sodas they make aren’t crisp, they’re not clean; they just don’t pop.”

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The exterior of Galco’s.CreditLaure Joliet

But, if you want to know what they used to taste like, Nese can point you in the right direction. Customers who want to know what Dr Pepper was like before it went big should try Dublin Black Cherry. Anyone who was drinking RC Cola 50 or 60 years ago will recognize the taste in Dublin Vintage Cola. Fans of Pepsi and Coke should try it too; Nese says that a guy who conducted the first Pepsi Challenge stopped in once and explained that it was originally a three-way taste test that included RC Cola. “Apparently, Pepsi could beat Coke regularly, but it couldn’t beat RC Cola, so they just eliminated RC from the challenge!” Nese says, with another belly laugh.

Now, Galco’s’ business is booming. While soda saved the family business, it’s not yet clear whether the business will carry on in the family. Nese’s only daughter is a chiropractor (“and very good at her job”), but his grandchildren — 11-year-old twins — have shown an interest. “They told me they’re ready to go to work … as the soda tasters.”

Asked about his own favorite, Nese couldn’t pick. “Early on, I learned to never say what’s best,” he says. “People come in here and that’s the first question they ask, but if there was a best soda, I’d only carry one.”